Just Breathe Lyrics – Prom

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

“Just Breathe” lands early in The Prom and does a neat trick: it introduces Emma’s world while coaching her through it. The band comes in clean - drum kit, bright guitar stabs, clarinet and brass licks tucked under strings - and the groove keeps everything buoyant even as the lyrics talk about panic. It’s pop-Broadway in the best sense: conversational melody, tidy hooks, and a tight, under-three-minute runtime that feels like a deep inhale and a long exhale.

Highlights, quick and plain:

• Character snapshot: a teen trying to stay steady while her town won’t budge.
• Craft: Sklar’s tune sits in a speak-sing pocket so the jokes and barbs land; Beguelin’s wordplay swings between eye-roll humor and pointed commentary.
• Arrangement: light pop rhythm section with woodwinds and brass for color; nothing fussy, which lets the pulse keep Emma moving.
• Placement: an “I’m okay…I think” number that frames the show’s stakes without preaching.

Creation History

Music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin. The original Broadway cast album was produced by Scott M. Riesett and Matthew Sklar for Masterworks Broadway, and the track appears as an early cut on the 2018 digital release. Orchestrations across the score come from Larry Hochman, with music direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell. The Netflix film version (2020) re-recorded the song with Jo Ellen Pellman as Emma, preserving the song’s structure but opening up its visuals.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Emma clocks the local weather right away: “out” doesn’t play in her Indiana town. After classmates mock her and adults turn her love life into policy, she self-coaches. Close your eyes. Count to ten. Picture a beach. Picture a pill. It’s a defense mechanism and a survival plan, scored to a beat that refuses to sulk. Between quips, she lets herself admit how heavy it all is, then steels herself for the next hallway.

Song Meaning

At heart, it’s about self-regulation when your environment won’t regulate itself. The title isn’t metaphor only - it’s Emma rehearsing the basics so she can keep showing up. The humor isn’t a dodge; it’s a coping tool. Pop touches sugar the pill, but the lyric keeps a spine of anger and clarity: this pressure isn’t abstract, it’s structural, and it lands on a teenager’s body.

Annotations

“Don’t be gay in Indiana”

The opener sets the battleground: geography as fate. The line also signals the show’s decision to place the story in Indiana, where statewide protections have lagged and culture fights over “religious freedom” laws left scars.

“Big heads up - That’s a really stupid plan”

The joke cuts two ways: it riffs on the bogus “choice” argument while showing Emma’s self-talk turning into gallows humor. The punchline lands because the music keeps smoothing forward - she’s talking herself down while winking at us.

“Then guess what’s bound to hit the fan?”

Here the idiom bleeds into staging - in performance, the world often freezes as Emma’s inner monologue takes over. That freeze is the point: anxiety makes time feel sticky, breath lifts it.

“It wouldn’t be high school without a test”

Beguelin layers the school metaphor over a moral exam. Emma doesn’t just pass or fail; she lives with the grading curve of her town.

[BOY #1, spoken] … “You don’t know her. She’s new here.”

The tossed-off lie protects her girlfriend, and the arrangement leaves space for the jab - rhythm drops, then resets. The pop feel helps these micro-shifts read like thought bubbles.

“Pray the Greyhound isn’t full”

That bus image is small, cheap, and real. It’s also a stealth rhyme with the show’s larger move: change might be as mundane as a seat out of town.

“Picture a Xanax in your hand”

Broadway rarely names pharmaceuticals this bluntly. The joke isn’t at anxiety’s expense; it’s the shorthand a teen might use for relief.

“Just end this inner monologue”

The staging turns the song into a thought bubble. That device lets the number stay intimate while the plot around Emma gets loud.

“Okay, I just got off the phone with the state’s attorney… This is a civil rights issue.”

A quick cut back to the world: institutional stakes, not just locker-room cruelty. The show keeps toggling between Emma’s heartbeat and the policy machine grinding around her.

Style and instrumentation

The engine is mid-tempo pop: kick-snare pocket, acoustic-electric guitar chatter, a clarinet color line, and light brass touches, with strings warming the top. Nothing elbows the vocal aside; Emma’s patter stays front and center.

Arc and tone

It starts with quips, edges toward panic, and lands on practiced calm. The fast talk and quick cuts mirror how spirals feel - then the hook reminds her (and us) to come back to baseline.

Context and touchpoints

Setting the story in Indiana lines up with real-world battles over LGBTQ rights and the headline-grabbing fights of the mid-2010s. The Netflix film widens the frame, literally throwing Emma into a pool for a verse - breath becomes choreography.

Key Facts

• Artist: Caitlin Kinnunen
• Composer: Matthew Sklar
• Lyricist: Chad Beguelin
• Producers: Scott M. Riesett, Matthew Sklar
• Release Date: December 14, 2018 (digital); January 11, 2019 (CD)
• Album: The Prom: A New Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
• Label: Masterworks Broadway / Sony Music Entertainment
• Length: 2:47
• Track #: 3
• Genre: Pop, Broadway, Musicals
• Language: English
• Instruments: drums, guitar, keyboards, bass, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, strings, percussion
• Mood: anxious-hopeful, wry
• © Copyrights: 2018 Sony Music Entertainment / The Prom Cast Album Recording LLC

Questions and Answers

Who produced “Just Breathe” by Caitlin Kinnunen?

Scott M. Riesett and Matthew Sklar.

When was “Just Breathe” released?

As part of the original cast album on December 14, 2018 (digital), with the CD following January 11, 2019.

Who wrote it?

Music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin.

Where does the number sit in the show?

Early in Act 1 as Emma’s first solo - it frames her inner voice and the town’s resistance.

Who sings it in the Netflix film?

Jo Ellen Pellman, as Emma, in a reimagined sequence that even sends her underwater mid-verse.

Awards and Chart Positions

The individual track did not chart as a single. The show around it did just fine in awards season: The Prom earned multiple 2019 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Direction, and acting nods for Caitlin Kinnunen, Beth Leavel, and Brooks Ashmanskas. It also won the 2019 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical.

Additional Info

• Film version: The Netflix adaptation (2020) features Jo Ellen Pellman on “Just Breathe,” with a pool sequence that literally turns breath into blocking.
• Historical spark: The musical takes cues from real events surrounding student Constance McMillen’s prom battle; moving the story to Indiana nods to the state’s culture-war headlines of the 2010s.
• Broadcast milestone: The company of The Prom made parade history in 2018 with what was widely reported as the first same-sex kiss aired during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.